ABSTRACT
In version one the teller also runs into difficulty in the calculation of the moon's weight, whereas in version two the answer is logical and exact, although some recensions of the tale treat the four quarters as making up a hundredweight, each weighing twenty-eight pounds, while others (e.g., No. 57, told by Everett Bennett's brother, Freeman) have each quarter weighing a hundred pounds-four hundred pounds in all. In version one we find the mingling of direct and indirect speech common elsewhere in this narrator's repertoire. It is seen, for instance, in the opening lines in the sentence "well yes he'd give un a job” which is in reported speech but has the intonation pattern of direct speech. Variety of tone quality is seen to good effect in the lengthening of the vowel in No when Pat expresses disappointment and irritation at being unable to answer the questions, and also in the priest's simple greeting “Ah Pat” which sounds like any ordinary greeting in its intonation, and helps both to characterize the priest and to suggest his friendly but superior relationship with Pat. The Irish context of the story is conveyed in the asseveration Begar and the syntax of the punch line: "an' 'tis Mike you're talkin to.” Note also the present tense you thinks (initial th realized as /t/), and the past or vivid present meet.
